Clive Woodward has lived up to his reputation for springing selection surprises in naming two newcomers, Jeremy Thomson and Barrie-Jon Mather, in a preliminary 37-man England squad for next month's World Cup qualifiers against Holland and Italy.
Thomson, a Saracens centre who played for Natal in last summer's Super 12 competition, and Mather a Rugby League back who recently transferred from Castleford to Sale, are among 11 players the England coach has added to the 26-man elite squad which trained at Roehampton earlier this month.
Thomson, a highly-rated ball player who was brought to Saracens by Francois Pienaar, could form a new midfield partnership with Jeremy Guscott, the only England centre who looks certain of his place next month.
Dan Luger, the Harlequins and England A wing, and Andy Long, the Bath hooker who was axed by Woodward after making an innocuous Test debut against Australia a year ago, joins a number of survivors from England's disastrous summer tour to the southern hemisphere in the revised squad.
Jonny Wilkinson, the Newcastle fly-half who won two caps on the tour also returns and Tim Rodber, the England and Lions number eight, wins a recall after a recent spell on the sidelines with a hamstring injury. There are also places for international backs Tony Underwood and Nick Beal. The England coach will again have to reduce his squad to 26 when he announces his line-up on November 9th for the Holland game five days later.
Australia stuck to their pledge to pick their strongest team possible, injuries aside, with only two Test regulars - Ben Tune and Matthew Burke - missing from the 26-man squad selected yesterday for next month's short tour of France and England.
Australia were determined not to make the same mistake as England, who suffered record defeats during their recent tour, following the withdrawal of 19 leading players for a variety of reasons.
Chris Latham and prop forward Patricio Noriega are the new faces in the squad.
Queensland's full back Latham and the ACT Brumbies' former Argentine test front-rower Noriega both owe their places to injuries and Noriega could still miss out because of injury.
Noriega, who recently completed his three-year residential qualification to play for his adopted country, injured an elbow playing in last Saturday week's National Championship match against Queensland.
Injuries have already culled prop Richard Harry and backs Matthew Burke, Damian Smith, Ben Tune and Stirling Mortlock from the tour squad.
The tour comprises matches against France A in Lille on November 15th and an international against France in Paris on November 21st. Meanwhile England have scrapped their scheduled 2.00 p.m. kick-off times for this season's pre-Christmas Tests against Australia on November 28th and South Africa on December 5th.
Both games at Twickenham will now start at 2.30 p.m. following talks between the Rugby Football Union and match broadcasters BSkyB.
"The 2.00 p.m. kick-off time last season caused supporters a great deal of logistical problems and affected our match revenue," said RFU chief executive Francis Baron.
All six of England's home Tests last season kicked off at 2.00 p.m. including Five Nations Championship games against Wales and Ireland. "The kick-off times for England's Five Nations matches are unchanged at this point, but we will be discussing the situation with BSkyB in the forthcoming weeks," Barron said.
England Squad (for pre-World Cup training next week): Backs: M Perry (Bath), N Beal (Northampton), D Luger (Harlequins), T Beim (Sale), S Brown (Richmond), D Rees (Sale), A Healey (Leicester), T Underwood (Newcastle), J Guscott (Bath), W Greenwood (Leicester), P De Glanville (Bath), B J Mather (Sale), J Thomson (Saracens), M Catt (Bath), P Gray- son (Northampton), J Wilkinson (Newcastle), K Bracken (Saracens), M Dawson (Northampton). Forwards: G Rowntree (Leicester), J Leonard (Harlequins), D Garforth (Leicester), P Vickery (Gloucester), W Green (Wasps), D Crompton (Richmond), R Cockerill (Leicester), P Greening (Gloucester), G Chuter (Saracens), A Long (Bath), M Johnson (Leicester), D Grewcock (Saracens), G Archer (Newcastle), L Dallagio (Wasps), N Back (Leicester), R Hill (Saracens), B Clarke (Richmond), A Diprose (Saracens), T Rodber (Northampton), B Sturnham (Bath).
Australia Squad (for tour of France and England): Backs: Joe Roff, Nathan Grey, Chris Latham, Mitch Hardy, Daniel Herbert, Tim Horan or Scott Staniforth, Jason Little, Manuel Edmonds, Stephen Larkham, George Gregan, Chris Whitaker.Forwards: Andrew Blades, Tom Bowman, Matt Cockbain, Dan Crowley, John Eales (capt), Owen Finegan, Michael Foley, Phil Kearns, Toutai Kefu, Patricio Noriega or Cameron Blades, Willie Ofahengaue or Daniel Manu, Glenn Panoho, Brett Robinson, John Welborn, David Wilson.
